James D. McFarland B.Sc., M.Sc., P. Eng

James D. McFarland B.Sc., M.Sc., P. Eng

Director, WPC Energy Canada CPC Chair, WPC Energy

Mr. McFarland is a corporate director and energy entrepreneur with more than four decades of broad operational and senior executive experience in the oil and gas industry in Canada and internationally. He has been at the forefront of many unconventional oil and gas developments in his career including oil sands, oil shale and tight gas, and has raised significant capital to fund new business. He is a retired CEO and current director of Valeura Energy Inc., which is active in Thailand and Turkey. Prior to that he was a co-founder and CEO of Verenex Energy Inc., which was a successful explorer in Libya over the 2005 to 2009 period when Libya re-opened its doors, leading to its sale in 2009.

Jim began his career with Imperial Oil Limited and over a 23-year period served in a number of senior executive roles with Imperial and other ExxonMobil affiliates in Canada and internationally prior to taking on leadership and founding roles as President of Husky Oil and subsequently as CEO of three start-up international oil and gas companies.

Jim has been a director of a number of public and private companies and is currently a director of two listed companies MEG Energy Corp. (TSX), where he is Chair, and Valeura Energy Inc. (TSX/LSE). Jim is also Vice President, Programme and Chair, Congress Programme Committee of WPC Energy (an international NGO), and a director of WPC Energy Canada, which hosted the 24th WPC Congress in Calgary in September 2023. WPC Energy’s mission is to be the World Forum for Energy Transformation.

In 2003, Jim was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal for “outstanding service through business and commerce”.

Jim received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University at Kingston, a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta and completed the Executive Development Program at Cornell University.